2018 NAAB Regular Member Unit Sales – Record Year

The National Association of Animal Breeders (NAAB) members report annual units for the categories of domestic sales, export sales, custom collected, imported units for dairy and beef breeds. With 95% of the US AI industry represented by NAAB members, these annual statistics give an unprecedented reflection of US cattle semen sales.

The US bovine semen industry had a record year as it achieved just over 60 million total units reported for all categories combined. This exceeded the previous record amount established in 2017 by 3.7 million units representing an overall annual increase of 6.5%. The total number of dairy units increased by 1.68% establishing a new record with 49.1 million units while beef units also set a new record reaching 11.7 million units. Dairy and beef exports along with domestic beef units made significant contributions to the new annual record.

The domestic dairy units reported for the US declined by 5.7% or 1.3 million units with a market size of 21.8 million dairy units. However, domestic beef units sold in the US increased by 1.5 million units representing an increase of 59%. While custom collected dairy units declined by 228,909 units, the custom collected beef units increased by 975,671 units for a net gain of 746,762 total custom collected units.

The international demand for US genetics continues to expand. New records were set for both dairy and beef exported units. Just over 24.5 million units of dairy semen were exported representing an increase of 2.5 million units for an 11.4% increase over 2017. Additionally, beef semen exports reached 3.97 million units for a 12.4% increase. Top three export markets for total units in 2018 were Brazil, China and Mexico.